Direct debit question

sondheimsoc

I am the administrator of a membership organisation (The Stephen Sondheim Society) which has recently obtained charitable status. We'd like to be able to get our members to pay via direct debit to simplify admin and thus save costs but we can't seem to find any bank (including our own) which will give us a definitive answer as to whether we can do this or not. We have around 600 members. Can anyone advise or point me towards a definitive answer / how to go about it?
Thanks
Lynne

greyteam1959

Try this link ??
http://www.bacs.co.uk/Bacs/Businesses/DirectDebit/Collecting/Pages/GettingStarted.aspx

Savvy_Sue

You may find you are too small / not sufficiently compliant to be able to do this: the rules around DDs are quite stringent.

Standing orders, on the other hand, are quite simple to deal with, as they remain under the control of your members.

Unless you are changing your rates at regular intervals, that could be a better bet.

sondheimsoc

Many thanks to you both. We currently use Standing Orders and threy are the bane of our life; we put up the rates in January 2011 for the first time in 15 years and people are still getting it wrong!
Have contacted BACs and they tell me that your own bank has to sponsor you so it's back to them yet again.
Lynne

JohalaReewi

Many years ago, Natwest had a service called direct pay (or something like that) where small businesses who could not qualify for proper direct debit status, could issue a list of payments to Natwest, and Natwest would convert them to direct debits and get the money for you. Not sure if it still exists in one form or another. Otherwise, yes you have to be sponsored by your bank if you want to collect payments by direct debit. Have you done a google for small business direct debit?

oldtoolie

Here are some agencies which work with charities on direct debits.

CAF - Charities Aid Foundation https://www.cafonline.org

Work With Us http://www.workwithus.org/services/DirectDebits.aspx

Rapidata Services http://rapidataservices.com/